Tick Tock
by jade304
Summary: While everyone knows the events told by heart, there's much more to the story of Blumiere and Timpani than what was told in-game.


The first things he heard upon waking were the sound of birds chirping, and the quiet sound of water dribbling into a bucket. He felt a soft, cushiony bed beneath him, and he felt a blanket covering him from the waist down.

His eyes remained closed, but he could feel warm sunshine on his face. Bright sunlight, not dimmed by any kind of cloudy sky; how unfamiliar.  
And birds singing...

Where exactly was he?

The dribbling sound stopped, and he felt a damp cloth brush across his chest. Finally, he opened his eyes.

The sudden bright light made him blink a few times, squinting, then he looked into the face of the person hovering over him.

"Ugh...ughhh..."

Her bright green eyes stared back into his, and she jumped back when he awoke. Her look of surprise was quickly replaced with a smile.

"You're awake at last?"

"Where...am I?"

He blinked, looking around him. The walls were painted a soft blue color, the entire room furnished in white. The bright colors combined with the sunlight made the room nearly blinding, and he felt his eyes watering a little. A bucket sat on the floor, its contents looking rather dirty, and the girl held a damp washcloth in her hand. The girl had pale skin and light hair, and that was when he realized where he was.

"Is this...a human's home?"

He was from the Tribe of Darkness, and this human girl...he looked at the cloth in her hand and recalled it brushing against him — she was _touching_ him! "Bleccch!"

He tried sitting up, but searing pain shot through his stomach and he groaned, collapsing back on the bed. The girl hurried to his side and placed both her hands on his shoulders to keep him still.

"Don't wiggle like that," She said. He looked alarmed at her hold on him, and she stood back. "You're only going to hurt yourself."

He looked back at the bucket on the floor, and this time he noticed the liquid had a pink tinge to it. He was bare from the waist up, and he could see his shirt thrown onto a desk. The material torn and saturated with blood. Turning his attention to himself, he noticed that there was a makeshift cast on his leg, and his arms were wrapped with bandages — upon closer inspection, they were pieces of his shirt. There was a large, ghastly-looking bruise on his stomach that was now throbbing, and an exposed cut across his chest. She followed his gaze and quickly pressed the cloth against it. He gave the slightest shudder, but let her tend to it.

"How did I get here? What happened to me?"

He couldn't remember.

She didn't look at him as she replied, continuing to clean his wound. "I found you at the cliff base. You took quite a fall."

His memory began coming back. The cliff...

_He had been arguing with his father, and left the castle to take a walk to calm himself. He kept walking, until he began to realize he had no idea where he was. In the distance, however, he remembered seeing a light. Sunlight._

_It was odd, because his home, the small area where the Tribe of Darkness lived, was always cloudy. Off in the distance, though, the sun broke through the clouds, and he could see the tops of large white buildings. Could that be the Ancient's city, the one that he had heard so much about, but never seen?_

_His father wouldn't be expecting him home for a while; they argued quite frequently about him, about how he was nearly an adult, how he should begin to be more responsible, prepare to someday take his father's place as the king of the Tribe of Darkness, and how Blumiere hated the idea. _

_Nobody in his tribe spoke very highly about the tribe of Ancients, especially his father. His mother had been killed by a human, his father always told him, and he never would forgive them. A vile race, he would say. They were above them. Blumiere was still curious, though. He had never seen an actual human being in his whole life, much less know where they even lived._

_But he had accidentally found it._

_He was approaching the edge of a high, rocky cliff, and he tried to keep his balance on the increasingly uneven ground. He gazed off into the distance in wonder; how could this place have been hidden? It was so bright..._

_He suddenly felt the ground beneath him crumbling, and before he could step back it gave way. _

_He grabbed frantically at the side of the cliff as he fell, and eventually scraped his hand against an outlying rock. His arms shook, and he felt that the rock wouldn't be able to support his weight for very long. He tried to get his footing to climb back up, but as he tried lifting himself up, the entire rock fell, taking him down with it._

_He felt the air whip past him, felt his body slam into the ground, heard a sickening snapping noise, and he fell unconscious..._

He looked back at the girl. She had finished cleaning the wound, and began bandaging it with a roll of gauze. He suddenly asked her,

"You are a human, correct?"

The girl looked confused, as if that should be obvious. He shook his head.

"I don't...repulse you? I am of the Tribe of Darkness..."

She finished bandaging him, and pulled a washcloth out a second, clean bucket. Sitting down on the edge of the bed next to him, she brushed the cloth gently across his forehead and said,

"Why would that matter? Anyone with a heart wouldn't ignore an injured soul!"

She moved a few strands of hair off his face, and traced her fingers along his forehead. He slowly began to relax, assured that she wouldn't harm him.

"You only have a few scrapes here," She said. "Luckily for you, they'll be fine." She gave the rest of him a once-over. "The rest of you, unfortunately, isn't."

"I'm Blumiere," He suddenly blurted out. The girl smiled slightly.

"My name is Timpani," She replied. "I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to me quick, because you don't appear to be going anywhere soon."

Blumiere gave her a look of alarm, and if he hadn't learned his lesson earlier, he would've shot straight up in bed. "N-no, I can't stay here, my father-"

"I'm sorry, but your leg..you're going to have to stay here for at least a few days."

A thought occurred to him. "How long have I been out?"

"Only a day, don't worry."

Blumiere sighed. He already saw that he wouldn't be able to move. A day, and now more — his father was probably already wondering. He hoped that he could just hurry this up, thank this girl Timpani for her help, and be gone from here. Although...he had to admit, she wasn't as bad as he always had imagined humans to be, and she was quite friendly.

They both suddenly realized her hand was still resting on his head, and she quickly pulled it back. "Whoops!"

Timpani stood up, giving Blumiere an awkward smile.

"Really, though, if you need anything I will try to help you."

"Thank you," Blumiere said.

Timpani emptied the contents of one bucket into the other, and carried both of them out. Blumiere sighed, resting his head back into the pillow.

Worried as he was, the next few days didn't appear to be all that bad.

_..._

_I remember that day room was warm. The whole place was at peace.  
That day...was the day our tragedy was set in motion._


End file.
